muppetfandomcom-20200223-history
Josh Selig
Josh Selig (b. 1964) is a writer, producer, and filmmaker. As a child, Selig appeared in the first two seasons of Sesame Street. He returned to Sesame Street as a writer in 1988. While there, he also wrote song lyrics, created short films and worked as a producer for Sesame Street International. Selig was the resident producer of Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim, the Israeli-Palestinian Sesame Street episode co-production. In 1999 he founded Little Airplane Productions, Inc. He named his production company after "I'm a Little Airplane", a song featured in a film insert that he produced for Sesame Street. He left Sesame Street in 2002 to work exclusively with Little Airplane. Credits * Actor: Sesame Street, Season 1 and Season 2 * Writer: Sesame Street (1988-2002), Little Bill * Filmmaker: short films for Sesame Street, Elmo's World, Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat * Creator: Oobi, Go, Baby!, The Wonder Pets!, The Little Carousel * Producer: Sesame Street Unpaved, Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim * Executive Producer: Oobi, The Wonder Pets! * Songwriter: songs for BB's Music Time (Disney Channel short), songs for Oobi, songs for The Wonder Pets!, incidental music and cues for Sesame Street Quotes "I honestly believe that human beings peak at about age 4. The average 4-year-old is more creative, more interesting, and has a better sense of humor than the average 40-year-old -- me included!" (Child interview, 2004) "When I began working at Sesame Street, I used to observe pre-school classrooms so I could learn more about this age group. I was — and still am — amazed by the creativity and decency of very young children. I think adults have much to learn from them. Including this adult." (Big Apple Parent interview, 2004) On Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim: "Originally there were going to be two different sets, an Israeli and Palestinian, and there was going to be a third set that was a park. It was going to be neutral ground where the two groups of people could interact. But as we got closer to production a lot of people raised the concern that such a park doesn't actually exist, so there was some hesitation to actually create such a place. So rather than have that third set, the compromise was that the Israeli and Palestinian characters would visit each other. But there were some very big screaming matches as these things were sorted out. It's just an area where all these issues are so volatile." On licensing: "My fear and loathing of licensing goes back to my early days at Sesame Street where I was taught that a preschool series and its educational curriculum was paramount. All the rest, the amusement parks, the live shows, the closets full of swag that were protected like gold in Fort Knox, meant nothing compared to the Holy Grail that was the show itself. We, the makers of Sesame Street, felt our show to be the sun around which everything else in the company (if not the world) orbited and, quite frankly, the wider their orbit the better. We were the caretakers of Sesame Street, the undisputed Barbra Streisand of all preschool shows." Sources *"Behind the Scenes With the Creator of Oobi" by Rory Halperin, Child, August 2004. *"Talking Shop... with Josh Selig", Big Apple Parent, September 2004. *"Oobi Does It", Newsweek, October 1, 2004. *"Josh Selig, Little Airplane Productions", by Lily Oei and Aaron Dobbs, Gothamist, January 24, 2006. External links *Little Airplane Productions __NOWYSIWYG__ Category:Writers Category:Producers Category:Lyricists Category:Sesame Street Cast